THE Sunday Mail and Bank of Scotland are backing Brendan Foster's bid to expand Glasgow's Great Scottish Run into a mass-participation event that will rival its London and New York counterparts.

ATHLETICS legend Brendan Foster has vowed to turn Glasgow’s Bank of Scotland Great Scottish Run into one of the world’s biggest sporting shows.

We can reveal today that the Sunday Mail has become the official media partner of the country’s biggest athletics event.

And with former Olympic medallist and world record holder Foster – the mastermind behind Europe’s biggest mass participation event, Newcastle’s Great North Run – now holding the reins of the Scots race, he’s confident he can get the city off to a flying start ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

More than 25,000 are expected to take part in the 10K and half marathon events on October 6, part of a weekend festival of running which will raise millions for charities, including the Sunday Mail’s Centenary Fund.

Foster’s company Nova International are working with Glasgow Life to take the event to new heights.

He said: “The Great North Run is now the biggest mass participation event in Europe and we want the Great Scottish Run to be up there alongside it.

“Particularly with the Commonwealth Games coming up in 2014, we’re going to take it to the next level – more TV nationally and internationally, more elite athletes, more people.

“I genuinely think it can become one of the great events in the world. London, New York, Chicago and Tokyo have theirs and to me, Glasgow can be up there. We’re determined to show the city in a great light to the world.”

Foster expects to announce a deal within the next fortnight that will see the race shown nationally on network TV, and he already has deals in place with broadcasting giants ESPN and Sky for it to be seen in the US and Asia.

And given his success at taking the Great North Run from nothing to its millionth runner in 32 years, his track record stretches far beyond his Commonwealth and European 10,000m golds and Olympic bronze in the 1970s.

He said: “It all started when I was training in New Zealand with Dave Moorcroft ahead of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

“We turned up for this local race and there must have been 15,000 there. The biggest field we’d ever seen was 1300 for the National Cross Country Championships.

“I said to Dave, ‘I’m bringing one of these to Newcastle.’ I founded it in 1981 and was staggered to get 11,000.

“Next year we’ll see our one millionth finisher. We’ll have done that before London, New York and Chicago. We’re very proud of that.”

The social impact of the race is staggering. The 65-year-old, now in his 30th year commentating with the BBC, spoke of his partnership with the Sunday Mail’s sister title, The Journal in Newcastle.

He said: “The results are incredible. Every year we raise more than £10million for charities. The economic impact for Newcastle is massive – £20million every time we hold the race.

“Glasgow is a much bigger city than Newcastle and better equipped in terms of hotels so we’re confident those kind of figures can be achieved.”

Foster has brought some of the world’s big names to Newcastle over the years and with the Commonwealth Games around the corner, he expects the elite race to have a high-class field in October.

Scots legend Liz McColgan, who runs for one of the Sunday Mail Centenary Fund charities – Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research – is also joining the event.

He’s also hopeful they can inspire a new generation of Scots to take part.

He said: “My first ever big event was the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970 when I was up against greats like Lachie Stewart.

“Since then you’ve produced quality runners and it’s fantastic that one of the all-time greats in Liz McColgan is such an active backer of the event.

“Hopefully with schools events on the Friday and a junior run on the Saturday, we can see a few more emerge.

“The chance to shine a spotlight on Glasgow and take the run past the venues the world will be seeing next year is a great opportunity and it won’t be wasted.”